Whether you’re a hiker, camper, explorer, or survivalist, the time has come to add smartwatches to your list of must-have items. These watches, far from being the bulky and perplexing devices of yesteryear, are tremendously handy for assisting you in navigating the terrain, tracking the weather, keeping track of your own body, and so much more.
5 Best Smartwatches for Backpackers and Campers
For individuals who prefer the vast outdoors to relaxing in the safety and comfort of their humble home, a dependable and durable watch is a requirement. Outdoor watches differ from ordinary timepieces. Know that they are often sturdier, more lightweight, multi-functional, and have a ‘sporty’ or tactical look.
Not all smartwatches are made equal, so choose a model developed with your favorite hobbies or experiences in mind such as camping. As a result, we’ve compiled a list of the top five outdoor smartwatches for camping you may consider.
1. Apple Watch 3
It is water-resistant up to 50 meters and strong enough to go swimming with. It is also dust- and impact-resistant that has integrated GPS (with a battery life of 5 hours). The Apple Watch 3 comes with a variety of customization choices, our favorite of which, in this case, is the sport-focused silicon watchband.
2. Casio G-Shock Mudmaster GG1000
Casio G-Shock Mudmaster GG1000 is considered as the Backpackers’ Most Rugged Watch. This tough watch is designed for the most provocative adventurers whose worries know no boundaries. This watch is mud-, shock-, and water-resistant smartwatch to a depth of 200 meters! That’s more than double the depth of any other watch on this list.
3. Garmin Enduro
The Enduro is designed for ultrarunners and trail runners. It does include additional Trail VO2 Max and rests timers to its ultrarunning mode, which is now available on the Fenix and Forerunner 945 watches. What you do get, though, is long battery life. Garmin claims up to 70 hours of GPS battery life, which increases to 80 hours when solar charging is used. In battery-saving mode, it claims to last up to 65 days.
4. Garmin Tactix Charlie Smartwatch
It should come as no surprise that Garmin, one of the GPS tracking industry’s goliaths, would produce a superb hiking and camping watch. It also has various features that are either scarce or non-existent elsewhere, such as topographical mapping in conjunction with the internal GPS, ultra-tough DLC titanium casing, and a plethora of outdoor-ready inbuilt sensors.
5. Samsung Gear S3 Frontier Smartwatch
The Gear S3 Frontier is a great outdoor smartwatch for people on a budget, with up to 3 days of smart watch battery life (probably substantially less in GPS mode) and a plethora of resistance to water, dust, dirt, and so forth. It’s not a top-tier solution, but it’s also not going to break the money.
By now, think of your smartwatch as a helpful tool that you can use on the move instead of reaching for a map or compass. You should never rely only on the functions of your hiking smartwatch, regardless of how wonderful or costly it is. They are helpful, but they may not be as accurate or reliable as, for instance, a portable GPS device, compass, or barometer.